Environmental factors have a regulatory effect on plant leaf functional traits, affecting ecosystems' functions and processes. Due to special adaptive strategies, Dicranopteris dichotoma can occupy an important ecological niche at different vegetational restoration stages related to changes in leaf functional characteristics. This study was conducted to explore the changes in leaf functional traits and their responses to environmental factors in four different vegetational restoration stages in the red soil erosion area at Changting, Fujian. We measured 11 leaf functional traits and 13 environmental factors. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the differences in environment, soil factors, and leaf functional traits at different vegetation restoration stages. Redundancy analysis and partial least squares model were used to analyze the main factors affecting leaf functional traits. The results depicted that with the succession of the vegetational restoration stage, environmental factors and the functional traits of leaves exhibited significant differences (P